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10 July, 2006
An eight-week long mining and copper smelting dispute in Poland that included a 28 June threat to strike was resolved last week. Managers of state-owned KGHM Polska Miedz SA, a giant copper and silver conglomerate, agreed to a performance-based bonus plan tied to the company’s handsome profits for the first five months of 2006.
Direct pressure on Polish ministry officials, as well on as the enterprise’s supervisory board, produced the bonus, which came close to the month’s salary that unions operating inside KGHM companies were seeking. The nine unions, all operating under the umbrella Trade Union of Copper Industry Employees (ZZPPM), together with a smaller grouping, ZZPP, won a bonus of 90% of the average monthly salary for the 17,000 KGHM workers. The bonus will be awarded this month.
The unions held a joint industrial action meeting and referendum from 28-30 June, which included a 95% strike vote, and on 30 June, thousands of KGHM workers took to the streets with an angry protest march on Poland’s Finance Ministry. ZZPPM and ZZPP demands also include a tightening of the political turn-over plaguing KGHM’s supervisory board, a fact playing a negative influence on the company’s performance. The unions are also seeking more funds for the company’s social fund.
KGHM has benefited from high prices of copper on the international market, and saw a net earnings result of €370.5 million for the first five months of 2006.
Coal miners in Poland, represented by ICEM affiliate Miners’ and Energy Workers Union of Solidarnosc, among other unions, also won a bonus award in late May. That payout was based on 2005 profits from a number of state-owned coal companies, including Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa, Kompania Weglowa, and Katowicki Holding Weglowy. Part of the government’s deal in awarding the bonus is to establish uniform collective agreements in Poland’s hard coal sector.